About the Department

Dept. of Bengali, Karimganj College, Karimganj, Assam

Karimganj College is at Karimganj, a town near the frontier of Indo-Bangladesh. A large part of the town came to be integrated into Bangladesh after the independence. It was the spirited endeavour of some great minds that led to the establishment of the College in 1946. Karimganj College is one of the few renowned colleges in Barak Valley, an area formerly known as Surma Valley, which Tagore once depicted as 'Sundari sribhumi'. The college boasts of many departments of studies of which the Department of Bengali holds a special position. Since the inception of the college in 1946, the Department of Bengali has always been in the forefront in imparting knowledge, in the spread of Education. It is heart-warming to realise that many teachers who have been a part of this Department have thrived and earned laurels serving in different Colleges and Universities all over the Country. Every year the Department takes the honours students on an Excursion, conducts seminars where in the partcipantion of honours students is a must. With a view to open the whole world to the students 'Karimganj College Cine Club' is formed by the Department of Bengali and English. Every year guest lecture is organised by the Department with a sole purpose to spread the periphery of the minds of the students. Recently the Department has launched an An E journal called 'Pratidhwani the ECHO' and the Departmental wall magazine 'Pandulipi' has been made online so as to provide a bigger, better, platform to the budding writters.

Pioneer of the Department

The Founder Professor of Bengali was a celebrated Bengali poet Ashok Bijoy Raha.He is always remembered with adortion by generations of students for the College anthem composed by him. He served the College as Professor of Bengali till 1951 when he was appointed Professor at Viswa Bharati. Dr. J.H. Rowlands was one of the illustrious foreigners, who dedicated themselves to the cause of spreading education among the Indian masses, particularly women. She was not simply a missionary, she was a humanist, alert to the women's upliftment and was careful in breaking the jinx that women can read and prove themselves equal to men. Well-veresed in English, Bengali and Philosophy, She associated herself with the teaching faculty of the College as an Honorary Professor of English and Philosophy.Bengali was earliar taught vernacular, but the change circumstances it began to be taught as one of the Modern Indian Languages. At the time of the introduction of the three year Degree course Milan Dutta was appointed. But he soon left the College. Jayanta Nath Choudhury, Subir Kar and Janmajit Roy were appointed in 1966, 1968 and 1970 respectively. Jayanta Nath Choudhury retired on superannuation in 1986. Subir kar who was later awarded a Ph.D for his researches assumed the charge of the Department in 1994 after the retirement of T.K Das.He was the first alumnus to be appointed in the Bengali Department. But he left the College in 1995 to join Assam University where he had been appointed a reader. Janmajit Roy, a scholar and a poet, also obtained a Ph.D degree for his academic persuits, became the Head of Bengali Department in 1995 after Subir Kar left the College for his new assignment. Following the retirement of H.C Bhattacharjyya in 1972, Asha Dutta was appointed in the Deparetment of Bengali in 1973. She also obtained a doctorel degree. She tetired in 1988. After retirement of Jayanta Nath Choudhury and Asha Dutta, Sumana Purkayastha, Uday Chand Das and Sukanta Sarkar were appointed lecturers in Bengali during the period from 1988 to 1989. Uday Chand Das has been awarded Ph.D. for his academic pursuits. The vacancy in the Bengali Department created due to Dr. Kar's joining Assam University has been filled in by Indira Das Choudhury. The name, Janmajit Roy leaves a benchmark to the Department of Bengali for his tiredless service and he was retired from his service life in 2009 and the vacancy came out then was filled up by Bishwajit Bhattacharjee with immiediete effect. Again Dr. Abhijit Chakraborty appointed to the strength of this Department in 2011 in place of Debashis Bhattacharjee who joined Assam University, Silchar. Dr. Sukanta Sarkar, was a solely dedicated teachaer to the Department who leave the Department on 2011 taking VRS owing to personal reason.

Author: Bishwajit Bhattacharjee
Ref: 1. "A historical Profile of Karimganj College"- Dr. Kamal Uddin Ahmed
2. "Karimganj : the Town and the College"- Susanta Krishna Dass

3. "Potrait of a Visionary : J.H Rowlands"- Sujit Kumar Ghosh.

Faculties:

1. Dr. Bishwajit Bhattacharjee, Head

2. Smt. Anita Goswami (Jash)

3. Dr. Abhijit Chakraborty

4. Md. Giasuddin

5. Dr. Bandana Barman